Website policy

We provide links to articles we think will be of interest to our supporters. We are sympathetic to much of the content of what we post, but not to everything. The fact that something has been linked to here does not necessarily mean that we endorse the views expressed in it._____________________

International lawyer Sharon Weill provides an overview of what follow-up there has been to the Goldstone Fact‐Finding Mission report, which raised serious allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Gaza during December 2008‐January 2009. The Goldstone report stated that the follow‐up might be exercised via three channels: (1) Israeli institutions; (2) the ICC; and (3) third states through the exercise of universal jurisdiction. Weill updates us on progress via all three…

Brian Klug, philosopher at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford University, asks what Jewish ethics can contribute to the road to peace in the Middle East. He has a vision of justice, ,rooted in the Torah, in which human rights – basic rights that accrue to each and every one of us purely and simply in virtue of being human – are a fundamental element: “when the language of human rights is spoken, many of us hear the voices of those Hebrew prophets, rabbis and other Jewish figures down the centuries for whom Judaism means nothing if it does not mean social justice and, in particular, protecting those who are vulnerable.” […]

Gilbert Achcar writes: “Successive Israeli cabinets have worked to enforce on the ground in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories a situation that they could present as irreversible. Have they now reached the point where the biblical book of Daniel’s prophecy is once again relevant?: Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin: the days of your kingdom are numbered; you have been weighed and found wanting; your kingdom will be divided and lost…”

There would seem to be a clear contradiction between Nick Clegg underlining the “need for a full, credible, impartial and independent investigation into the events of 31 May” and his statement that “Israel’s announcement of an inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge Yaakov Tirkel is an important step forward. We welcome the appointment of Lord Trimble as an international observer. Clearly it is very important that this is a truly independent inquiry and a thorough investigation that the international community can respect.”

Since Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967, ultra-nationalist settler communities have been infiltrating the heart of Palestinian neighbourhoods like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah with the intention of creating an “undivided Jewish city”. Abe Hayeem reports on the latest phase of the struggle…

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s far-right foreign minister, set out last week what he called a “blueprint for a resolution to the conflict” with the Palestinians that demands most of the country’s large Palestinian minority be stripped of citizenship and relocated outside Israel’s future borders…

Miri Weingarten writes: “A new “anti-boycott bill”, the third in a series of proposed laws that aim to curtail the ability of civil society to criticise Israeli government policy, will punish Israelis or foreign nationals who initiate or promote a boycott of Israel…” Under the proposed legislation, the EU would qualify as a “promoter of boycott”, and Israel could be seen to be breaking the terms of the EU-Israel Association Agreement…

In the US both Congress and the Senate have shown strong, indeed uncritical, support for Israel in its actions against the Gaza flotilla. The Israel lobby clearly remains very powerful indeed in the United States…

Israeli reporter Ilana Hammerman recently confessed in dramatic detail to a crime she had methodically planned and committed: she took 3 Palestinian children to an Israeli beach so they could enjoy themselves… In an artilce in Haaretz she explains why she did it; and Max Blumenthal and Seth Freedman provide background to and comment on the ‘incident’.

The Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Group (EWASH) welcomes the easing of the Gaza blockade but says it is not relieving the water crisis in Gaza where 90 percent of water for domestic supply is now below the minimum World Health Organisation (WHO) standard for drinking water, due to a lack of adequate sewage treatment…

In Globes magazine Anat Cohen asks: “How can we keep doing business in the atmosphere of incessant media onslaught against Israel?” Four international management experts explain the need to distrust local partners, how to use “our weak standing as Israelis” to advantage to expedite deals, insist that disputes be settled in London or New York courts rather than in France, Germany, Italy…

The number of postings to the website this week may be down a little, now that the immediate Gaza flotilla crisis has passed, but the range of topics covered is broad. Click on the heading above to go through to a guide to this week’s postings which include reports on new attacks on the Palestinian citizens of Israel, the continuation of the Gaza blockade, more discussions on boycott and divestment and sanctions, more on the attack on Israeli academics and NGOs, a discussion as to where Zionism is going – and much else besides.

Hillel Cohen noted in his book ‘Good Arabs’ that historically the Israeli state has tried to “change the consciousness” of the Palestinian minority with the aim of creating a “new Israeli Arab identity”. It is the failure of this effort – as evidenced by an assertion of Palestinian identity, solidarity with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and increasing links to the global solidarity movement – that has provoked the anger of the political and security establishment…

Tony Lerman looks at trends of ideological revivalism with Zionism today: the ultra-nationalist, religious and messianic settler movement; Im Tirzu; demands for loyalty oaths to the Jewish state; and the like. But more questioning voices within the Zionist camp fear that such an exclusivist nationalism will take Israeli Jews back to the perceived ghetto mentality of diaspora Jews that Zionism was meant to eradicate…

The European Court of Justice found that the EC-Israel Agreement must be interpreted in light of the EC-PLO Agreement, and therefore only the Palestinian authorities can issue origin certificates for goods originating in the West Bank. As a result, the status of goods from East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Gaza remains open; an exporter of West Bank-origin goods can benefit from EU tariff preferences if it can obtain a EUR.1 certificate from the Palestinian customs authorities… Detailed analysis of the judgment by Itzchak Kornfeld.